Welcome to the home page of the Mellowship. The Mellowship is a raiding kinship originally from the Eldar server and now we found a new home on Evernight. A significant proportion of the kin members have been in LOTRO almost since the beginning of the game.

Eldar

The kinship really took off in November 2007, when its Founder Harleyg, led a small group to achieve a server first and take down Thaurlach (the end boss) in the Rift. We also got a server second on killing Thorog in Helegrod.
In the Mines of Moria, we developed tactics and farmed the 6 hardmode instances for enough equipment to kit out a team to spearhead our attempt at Moria's only raid - the Vile Maw. This pool of players spent a couple of weeks in the Maw and after dozens and dozens of wipes we finally took down the Watcher in December 2008. This was a server first and a European first (yes, we beat the Germans for once).

We completed the Dar Narbugud raid first in Europe and we got a world first on the Barad Guldur raid when we defeated the Lieutenant. The Challenge Mode version we did in early January 2010 when everyone was back from holidays.

Late 2010 saw the release of the Enedwaith region followed by the Ost Dunhoth raid in March of 2011, we were first on the server to clear the raid on Tier 2 late in April, the remaining Tier 2 Challenges were completed early in May, also a server first. Draigoch's Lair was released with the Rise of Isengard expansion late September, we cleared the Tier 2 Challenge mode of this encounter at the beginning of October claiming European & server first.
The Tower of Orthanc raid came with an update in December 2011. We were the first on the server and second in the World to clear all Tier 2 Challenges towards the end of May 2012, individually:
Acid wing T2 Challenge World first.
Shadow wing T2 Challenge World first.
Fire & Frost wing T2 Challenge World second and server first.
Saruman T2 Challenge World second and server first.

The Erebor raid cluster in the spring of 2013, brought us server first for Fires or Smaug T2C and Battle for Erebor T2C.

Throughout 2013-2014 our kin became silent due to the lack of group content in LotRO.

Evernight

In the Autumn 2015, during the global merge of LotRO servers, the majority of Eldar kinships chose to migrate to Evernight, and so did we. When the new raid was announced, some of the older members returned to LotRO. We started recruiting mostly ex-Eldarian players that are known to the kin.

As for the new raid, Throne of the Dread Terror, we were the first in the world to do the Mumakils and Vadokhar challenges, server's first for the Rakothas and Nazguls' challenges, server's second for the Gothmog challenge.

Organisation

The kinship has had a few leaders since its creation - Harleyg, Axion, Diek, Dwargorath and Effex. The current leader is Elena. The kin is organised by the leader and 4 officers: Balggo, Cynthial, Ishtarien and Xandross. Recruitment and any contentious issues are agreed by mutual consent and if required each officer has 1 vote and a veto option.
We also have a social aspect to the kinship. We have players who have either retired from the raiding game or joined as real life friends or in game friends. These guys form a social heart to the kin which offsets the seriousness that hardcore raiding can sometimes create. This balance and sense of self is what has kept the Mellowship relatively stable over its long lifespan. We sometimes recruit social players and usually this is real life friends or long term in game friends - we do not advertise for this it just kind of happens.

We actively recruit raiders when a spot opens for a particular class. We look for long term players who can play their class exceptionally well and are friendly, generous team players. Using Mumble to raid is mandatory and mains are always given preference over alts. We try to be (mostly) mature and respectful in kin chat, OOC and on the Turbine forums.

We do not exploit game mechanics or any Dev documented exploits.

A word on Alts. We all have alts for crafting, making money and for fun and so on. But Mellows are a bit neglectful of them. We do not spend a lot of time gearing them (perhaps we should who knows).